Fever
by fazzems
Summary: When Jay comes down with a fever, Theresa, Atlanta, and Archie offer to stay behind with him as the others go out on a boating trip - Songfiction to These Things I'll Never Say by Avril Lavigne, J/T and slight A/A.


Hey, the COTT section is slowly dying and is in dire need of some new stories, so I thought I'd post something I wrote a while back, so I apologize in advance if it's not really good xD Did anyone else see Phantom Rising, it was so awesome! The J/T was my favourite part though :) Anywho, on with the story

Remember, reviews are love! :3  
_P.S. sorry if the characters are a bit OoC_

**Disclaimer: Class of the Titans isn't mine, nor is the song These Things I'll Never Say by Avril Lavigne, but if Jay ever needs a place to get away from it all, I'm here. Jay, ditch everybody else…come to me…. **

* * *

**Fever**

_I'm tugging at my hair  
I'm pulling at my clothes  
I'm trying to keep my cool_

Theresa grimaced, brushing her hair over for what felt like the hundredth time whilst staring in the mirror. She pulled at the hem of her violet button-up sweater with the other hand, and then smoothed her fingers across her jeans to lessen the wrinkles in it.

"Okay, looks good," she muttered to herself, fanning her hair out behind her and accidentally dropping the brush onto the ground.

She bent down and picked it up, placing it back down on her dresser and catching another glance at her jeans.

Now officially crinkled again.

"Ugh," she fumed, frustrated, "Why am I even doing this? He's not even half-conscious!"

She knew she was overreacting, that this was so not like her, but she couldn't help it, couldn't help the butterflies from fluttering in her stomach.

The night before, Jay had concocted a brilliant plan to go sailing and take everybody with him for vacation, to which everybody but Archie had agreed to, but instead had fallen sick to a fever the next day. Now he was lazily drifting in and out of consciousness as he tried to sleep it off, but he had urged the rest of the team to go without him. Of course, Theresa had volunteered to stay behind with Jay; however, Archie had argued relentlessly and the two finally came to a compromise where they both stayed behind.

Archie was still terrified of water, to put it bluntly.

Then, he had begged Atlanta to stay behind with him, or, as Archie had argued in his defense later that evening, that he had pleasantly 'requested' of her presence (psh, as if, he had gotten down on two knees and threatened to cry). So now, Neil, Odie, and Herry were at sea with his boat and Jay constantly mumbled in his sleep and voiced his worries that Neil would take the wheel and steer them off the side of a waterfall and break his ship.

Somehow, Theresa realized that her diluted mind had come up with the idea that it was practically a date, and now she was stumbling all over herself. Now, she knew she was being foolish, but she also knew Archie and Atlanta had a thing for each other, so it was almost a double date. Besides the fact that the two were oblivious to each other's feelings and that Jay was a sick, blubbering, sleepy fool right then and wouldn't comprehend if she said anything.

Theresa had come up with the idea that maybe, _maybe_, she had a small crush on Jay.

But who was she kidding? She knew it was more than that, but instead contented in denial. Because denial was the key, wasn't it?

"Theresa, come on! We're going to start the movie!" Atlanta's impatient voice sounded from downstairs.

"Coming!" Theresa called, casting a quick stare out her window at the setting sun before opening her door and launching herself out of it and down the stairs.

"Hey!" she said breathlessly as she entered the living room where Atlanta and Archie were set up on the ground, with Jay lying on the couch, her cheeks red from her sudden mad-rush down the staircase.

_I know it shows  
I'm staring at my feet  
My cheeks are turning red  
I'm searching for the words inside my head_

Jay shot her a curious glance on this rare occasion where he was awake, his eyes questioning. In fact, she noticed, he was looking more and more better each hour, his face becoming less pale.

"Okay, let's start the movie! What have we got?" Theresa asked, clapping her hands together once before finding a spot on the couch by Jay's feet and sitting.

"Some Chick-Flick…" Archie mused angrily, putout because he hadn't gotten to choose the movie and that Atlanta had instead.

"Hey, you made me stay! I get to choose the movie – and besides, how is Mission Impossible 3 a _Chick Flick_!?" Atlanta demanded, crossing her arms and leaning towards Archie provokingly.

Archie opened his mouth to retort, but Jay yawned and interrupted, "Can we just skip the arguing for tonight?"

Jay frowned and sat up, wiping some sweat off of his forehead and fidgeting on the couch uncomfortably

_(Cause) I'm feeling nervous  
Trying to be so perfect  
Cause I know you're worth it  
You're worth it  
Yeah_

"You okay, man?" Archie asked hesitantly from his spot on the floor, eyeing Jay suspiciously as he pulled at the edges of his light T-shirt.

"I'm alright, just a little hot…" Jay sighed.

"Fever symptoms?" she guessed, stating the obvious.

"Oh yeah," he rolled his eyes, suddenly reaching down and grabbing the bottom of his T-shirt and yanking it over his head.

Hel-lo, what have we here?

His chest was glistening with sweat and Theresa couldn't tear her eyes away, as embarrassing as it was. He discarded the offending T-shirt onto the floor and leaned back, looking much more relieved. She was mesmerized until Jay broke her from her stupor, "Uh, Theresa?"

"Mmmhmm?" she hymned, tearing her gaze away from his chest, chagrined.

"Nevermind," he replied, looking at her ominously while raising a quizzical eyebrow at her.

She fought the blush that threatened to overcome her face and she innocently turned to look at the screen as if watching the movie.

Too bad the TV wasn't even on yet, and she could still see Jay looking at her curiously out of the corner of her eyes and thrived to keep her attention to the blank TV screen.

Finally, after Atlanta had scrambled around for the remote, she inserted the DVD into the player and pressed play.

Immediately, the Mission Impossible 3 theme song buzzed throughout the whole entire room.

The minute the movie started, they were all too engrossed in the movie to look at one another, which was a huge relief to Theresa.

All throughout the movie, Theresa could hear the two on the floor whispering comments to each other, barely suppressing giggles (or chuckles, for the manly-man, good 'ol Archie). Theresa suppressed her disappointment as Jay kept drifting in and out of the movie, at one point snoring lightly. About halfway through, Jay's eyes were drooping again and she could tell he was barely paying attention anymore. He was pulled out of his half-conscious state as Archie stared at the screen in shock and ended the silence abruptly.

"I don't understand… why does the girl let the man _destroy_ her orange Lamborghini? That's horrible!" Archie whispered in horror.

"Yes, Archie, that's a definite sin," Atlanta rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"What is she thinking!?" he demanded in a whispered shout.

"I don't know…" Jay murmured weakly from the couch, hoping that his random input of opinion would help shut them up.

"Join the club, we have jackets," Archie muttered begrudgingly as Theresa laughed at their pointless bickering.

"Can we please just watch the movie?" she asked.

"Fine, fine," Archie agreed reluctantly.

Theresa smiled brightly and turned over to Jay, her smile dropping as she noticed his eyelids had fallen shut again and his breathing was slow and even. His brow was covered with sweat, as was his still-sparkling chest that she attempted not to dawdle on too long. She frowned heavily, watching his breathing grow uneven, short, and ragged as he dreamt for the ump-teenth time that night; she hated it when other people were sick. When other people were sick, she always felt the need to fuss all over them, she always felt horrible and sympathized them… she decided it was much easier to be the one sick than the one taking care of of the ill.

When you were sick, you had no one to worry about but yourself and getting better, always had something to focus on (even if it was pain). When you took care of them you had to face their pain almost every step of the way with them, but know that you can't do anything to help them.

_But I can help him_, she decided, biting her lower lip as he shivered in his sleep.

She raised her hand hesitantly, she could see it trembling, and rested it on his sweaty forehead, feeling the sticky moisture of sweat and heat radiating off of it and almost immediately feeling the need to draw away out of disgust.

She frowned and closed her eyes, concentrating hard to erase his dreaming, letting him settle into a dreamless sleep with no worries that held less stress on the body.

He stopped shaking and shivering, his breath regained a regular pace, and his eyes weren't squeezed shut anymore.

Finally at a peaceful rest. Theresa sighed.

She didn't really know what she was doing, but she attempted to picture the coldest, most heavy snowstorm she could, feeling shivers course though her body at the thought of it.

She tried to hold onto that freezing feeling, then let it go, flying through her fingertips and transmitting into his mind, at least that's what she predicted had happened.

No matter, she grinned as she heard him sigh happily in his sleep, grinning goofily.

"What are you doing?" Atlanta whispered to her, absent-mindedly flicking a sleeping-Archie over the head.

Archie snorted in his sleep, but other than that seemed unaffected by her actions.

"Making him colder," Theresa shrugged, "I think… well, I hope…"

Atlanta flicked Archie again and Theresa muttered, "Jeez, he's a deep sleeper…"

"Tell me about it," Atlanta chuckled, plugging his nose and covering his mouth with her other hand, "I wonder if this'll wake him up?"

"You're probably just going to end up killing him, he won't wake up," Theresa warned, half-jokingly and Archie stirred uncomfortably in his sleep but did not awaken.

Finally, after 20 long seconds, he shook his head like a dog and spluttered for breath, his arms slapping surprisingly girlishly at his face to bat away Atlanta's hands. Miraculously, he still wasn't awake.

Theresa and Atlanta broke into a fit of giggles at his public display of his "feminine side" and then as he rolled over onto his stomach and covered his eyes with his arm.

"Wow, you snagged yourself a real lively one!" Theresa laughed mockingly, watching as Atlanta's face darkened.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, poking Archie in between the eyes irritably.

"Nevermind," Theresa held up her hands in defense as the fiery redhead rounded on her.

"Well, hey, at least mine's not half-dead!" Atlanta countered, gesturing to Jay who sat beside her, looking terrible with the glistening sweat and squinched up eyebrows in the pain of the returning heat.

Atlanta froze as her words just sank in, "And by mine… I mean, everybody's…"

Atlanta's face scrunched up in confusion as those words sank in again, realizing her previous sentence had made no sense what-so-ever.

"At least everybody's not half-dead?" she repeated and rephrased, looking just as confused as Theresa.

Fortunately Jay stirred beneath her fingertips, causing Theresa to turn her attention away from the babbling Atlanta and back to him.

"Not so loud!" she whispered holding back her smirk, "Jay may be pretty much half-dead, but he's not deaf…"

Atlanta shrugged nonchalantly, then turned back to the movie, a blush present on her face as she pretended to forget the past event..

A couple minutes later, she heard Atlanta whisper quietly, "Are you going to tell Jay?"

_If I could say what I want to say  
I'd say I want to blow you--away  
Be with you every night  
Am I squeezing you too tight?  
If I could say what I want to see  
I want to see you go down--on one knee  
Marry me today  
Guess I'm wishing my life away  
With these things I'll never say_

It took a few seconds for her to reply, "Tell him what?"

Atlanta leaned backwards and looked her in the eye, "You know what."

"That's a definite maybe," Theresa avoided her eyes, clicking her tongue to fill the awkward silence.

Trying to distract herself and already forgetting about the movie, she transmitted another snow hill vision into Jay's head.

She let her hand run down his forehead and cup the side of his face; she looked into his closed eyes longingly.

"Definitely maybe," she repeated in a whisper.

She let her hand drop back down to her side, but couldn't resist letting her hand trail down his chest in her hand's path, his fingers tingling where she had touched him.

When the movie was only twenty minutes away from ending, Theresa cast her gaze downward where Atlanta and Archie slept on the ground and noticed with a grin that one of Atlanta's hands was reaching over herself in one final attempt to probably wake him before she had fallen asleep, wrapped around his neck.

Meanwhile, as Theresa stared at the screen, the only one awake, she felt Jay's head fall onto her shoulder as he whimpered in his sleep.

She momentarily looked away from the screen, grinning sheepishly in spite of herself as his head rested precariously on her shoulder. She reached over herself and cupped his cheek again, thinking freezing and gelid thoughts to cool him down.

She froze in surprise though as she felt Jay's hand suddenly shoot up and grab her wrist, his eyes flickering open and staring into her shocked ones.

"Don't," he said quietly, his voice cracking and rough like sandpaper, grinning crookedly, "I'm getting too cold."

She let her hand slip out of his and whispered, "How are you feeling?"

"A bit better," Jay mumbled, wiping his brow and removing a line of sweat.

"Are you sure? Maybe you should rest a bit more," she fretted as he lifted his head off of her shoulder. They were so close, inches apart.

_It don't do me any good, it's just a waste of time  
What use is it to you what's on my mind?  
If it ain't comin' out, we're not going anywhere  
So why can't I just tell you that I care?_

"Theresa," he chuckled huskily, "Seriously, I'm fine. Albeit, maybe a bit tired, but I'm okay."

"Okay," she agreed, staring into his eyes, hopelessly lost, "It's just…"

She trailed off, alighting a curiosity in Jay and he leaned in closer, his breath blowing in her face as he whispered, "It's just what?"

Surprisingly, she didn't blush and turn away; she stared straight into his eyes, searching.

"Just… I-I care about you, Jay, we all do… I don't know what I would – we would – the team – would do without you."

_'Cause I'm feeling nervous  
Tryin' to be so perfect  
'Cause I know you're worth it, you're worth it  
Yeah..._

_If I could say what I wanna say  
I'd say I want to blow you--away  
Be with you every night  
Am I squeezing you too tight?  
If I could see what I wanna see  
I want to see you go down--on one knee  
Marry me today  
Guess I'm wishing my life away  
With these things I'll never say_

He didn't reply at first, he seemed a bit shocked to hear Theresa say that, and that awakened a hurting, hollow feeling in her heart.

"Oh, but I don't mean it like that – no, of course not!" Theresa saved unconvincingly, holding up her hands as if to show she was unarmed.

Jay's face altered a bit, but he managed to pull a smile without yawning too terribly, though the hearty grin never did reach his eyes.

Jeez, had she said the wrong thing?

_(What is)What's wrong with my tongue?  
These words keep slipping away  
I stutter I stumble like I've got nothing to say_

This was so frustrating…

As Jay shot her a curious look at her suddenly downcast mood, she grinned at him half-heartedly, running her hands down a few strands of her hair.

_I guess I'm wishing my life away  
With these things I'll never say_

"What's up, Theresa?" he asked curiously.

"It's nothing, just thinking," she mumbled, trying to turn her attention back to the scream, jumping in surprise as a man held a gun to the other guy's head. How much of the movie had she really missed while just talking to Jay.

"A penny for your thoughts?" he joked quietly, feeling a lot better now.

"They're not worth it," Theresa muttered sadly, then straightened a bit as she realized that she had just spoken aloud.

Oh snap.

"What?" he demanded, his eyebrows pulled together in an angry confusion, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Theresa's eyes widened and her back became taut as she stared at him in silence.

It was better not to reply to that, she decided.

"Seriously, Theresa," Jay spoke, his voice stern and serious.

Dang… he actually expected an answer to that.

Theresa thought fast, knowing that if she didn't reply soon, Jay would come up with the wrong conclusion.

"Well, yeah, I'm just thinking about the movie, y'know? I was talking to you then I missed so much in the movie, then suddenly this guy was putting a gun to his head and – oh my god!" she babbled relentlessly, jumping slightly as she heard a gunshot and looked at the screen, "Did she just shoot him!? B-but, aren't they married!?"

Jay sighed in defeat although she could tell that he didn't really believe her, but her attention was back on the movie now.

"I'm so confused…" Jay murmured.

Theresa could feel the light buzz of his mind as he sorted through something in his mind. Theresa could always hear the light buzz, or sometimes catch random words, when people were thinking too hard. They made it too hard for her to pay attention on anything else so she usually would just leave the room and the annoying mosquito noises would go away, but she couldn't just walk away this time without looking like an idiot.

"Okay, what's bothering you?" she asked, wondering if she really wanted to know.

_'Should… tell...?_' she managed to pluck those two words from the annoying buzz.

Suddenly, there was a sharp prick she felt on the inside of her skull as the humming increased in volume.

"Stop thinking so hard," she hissed, holding her hands over her ears.

The buzzing only grew and intensified.

"Jay!" she moaned in pain, grasping her head.

"You can hear me?" he whispered frantically, and the buzzing grew even more.

She bit her bottom lip. Hard. She attempted to hide the gasp that was threatening to escape that could possibly turn into a loud yelp and would wake up Atlanta and Archie.

The buzzing had never been so bad, never so unbearable, it was usually just a light hum in the back of her mind that would eventually go away; what the heck was he thinking about to do this to her!?

"I'm sorry!" he apologized, looking horrified, "I'm so sorry!"

"Just. Stop. Thinking!" she spat through clenched teeth.

"That would be easier if you were talking to Neil!" Jay frowned as his face contorted for a moment as he tried to stop the wave of thoughts he was running through his mind, and the thrumming buzzes slowed to a stop.

When she had calmed down, she croaked weakly, "Don't think so hard…"

"I'm sorry, Theresa, so sorry…" he mumbled, sounding so sincere that she momentarily forgot the pain, "Could you hear what I was thinking?"

"No…" she said hesitantly, there she perked up and stared at him curiously, the pain momentarily forgotten, "Why, what were you thinking?"

He paused before grinning hopelessly at her, "Do you think I'm really going to answer that?"

"So you think you're just going to put me through that and not reply then, are you?" she pouted, luring him into telling her even though the pain was now completely gone.

A tug of guilt pulled at him until he saw the glint in her eyes and crossed his arms stubbornly, "Nice try… I'm sorry, but don't count on it."

Theresa sighed and rolled her eyes and refrained a blush as he smirked at her. Why was she getting these stupid feelings? "Darn hormones…" she mumbled under her breath inaudibly.

"What?" he breathed, staring at her in shock as he managed to catch her few words.

Oh snap, again.

She really needed to control her big mouth; had she just implied that she liked him?

'Crap. Maybe I could make him feel like he was just hearing things. That could work, couldn't it?' she thought to herself.

"What?" she asked, pretending to stare at the screen absent-mindedly.

"Don't play stupid with me, what did you just say, Theresa?" he demanded, forgetting the sleeping couple who were sleeping on the floor. If they got too loud, they'd wake up.

He wiped his forehead and cleared his throat as if actually expecting an answer to this as well. Come on, he expected her to reply two replies in just one hour? He was pushing it.

"I didn't say _anything_," she emphasized, crossing her arms, "I was just watching the movie…"

"The credits are playing, Theresa, they've been on for a couple minutes now," Jay frowned, always the voice of reason.

"Well excuse me for looking at the names on the credits! I was just curious to see if anybody I knew was involved in the movie too!" she lied horribly.

Why was she avoiding this, she realized in terror, why couldn't she just tell him how she felt?

Ugh, she wanted to stop pretending, but was it too late for that? After about five minutes of bickering with him was it too late to change her views and maybe actually… imply purposely that she liked him?

'_No, it's not too late_,' she thought, grinning a bit mischievously if she did say so herself.

She leaned in suddenly as he opened his mouth to retort and they were suddenly nose-to-nose, his breath hitching in his throat.

"Yeees?" she asked, exaggerating the length of that one word.

"Uh…?" he mumbled, blushing like any sane man would at their approximate closeness and forgetting what he was going to say.

_If I could say what I want to say  
I'd say I want to blow you--away  
Be with you every night  
Am I squeezing you too tight?  
If I could see what I want to see  
I want to see you go down--on one knee  
Marry me today_

Honestly, she was never one to 'Quote"flirt"Unquote' with guys but, as cliché as it sounded, she felt like a completely different person right then.

She leaned in a little more and the annoying buzz started again as his mind started up again.

She leaned in a little more again until their foreheads wore touching and the buzz shorted out immediately at the touch, his eyes wide.

She grinned; okay, she was going to do it, tell him how she felt (because who was she kidding, denial has its ups and its downs, mostly downs).

Okay, so how did she start?

She froze as she realized with a start that she now had no idea what to do next.

'_What now?_' She asked herself dumbly.

Why had she gotten into this position without thinking it through first, she probably looked like an idiot to him.

Uh-oh, now he was going to lean back and ask her what the heck that was, then it was going to be all awkward, then he would stand up and leave the room (despite his sickness), then probably never talk to her again, then the day after he would tell everybody what she had done and they wouldn't want to be her friend anymore because they were disgusted, then her life would be ruined, she'd quit the team, Cronus would win and take over the world, then repeat the story of how she had left the team and helped him conquer everything to his little children and the people of New Olympia, then he'd learn a bunch of languages and conquer China and Russia, then Germany, then repeat the story to them, then he'd repeat to everybody, and various other things in that very long run-on sentence.

When people freak out, they tend to exaggerate, but Theresa was in overdrive.

'_Then Cronus would seek me out and tell the story of how I freaked Jay out and why I quit the team again just to embarrass, then he would gather to team together and leave us all in a dungeon room where they would all yell at me, especially Jay, then I would cry a lot, then they'd find random objects around the cellar to throw at me, then I'd cry some more, then I'd freak out and try to escape but Cronus would find me and zap me with something magical and make me under his control, then he'd force me to do the chicken dance and-_' she thought in horror, but her thoughts suddenly came to an end as Jay leaned forward and did something she never expected him to do.

He kissed her.

(Thank the gods it ended her train of thought because it was just about to get ugly)

His eyes had fallen shut and his hands had moved upwards and held onto her shoulders as if afraid she would escape him. Truth be told, she was in no mood to be running right then, still frozen in shock against his lips, her eyes wide open.

Still she couldn't muster up the strength to break her from that stupor and after a few seconds of one-sided kissing, Jay pulled back, looking hurt.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry," Jay muttered quickly, staring at the ground in humiliation, "I didn't mean to do that! It's just, you were so close and-"

Finally, Theresa blinked as she broke free from her eternal bliss and reverie and a grin wrapped around her face.

He, still not realizing, dropped his hands from her shoulders and hid his blush.

She broke into a full-blown smile and, on an impulse, launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck as their lips met contact once again, the two falling off the couch and her sudden spring.

He grunted as they hit the floor, but didn't break contact and instead grinned against her lips, his thoughts running wild and the buzz starting for the third time.

'_Love… her… so… much…_' she made out the words and wound her small arms further around his neck, tilting her head to the side to get a better angle as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

After what felt like seconds and could've been hours, they broke apart and grinned at each other.

Theresa suddenly frowned and pulled at the hem of her sweater, "Is it just me, or is it hot in here?"

**The Next Day…**

Theresa fell onto the couch with an oomph, draping her arm over her eyes theatrically like a damsel in distress. She was so hot, sweat was trickling down her neck even though it was pouring outside and freezing cold.

"Fever symptoms?" Jay mimicked as he walked into the room, perfect health and all.

"Oh yeah…" she quoted sarcastically.

_Guess I'm wishing my life away  
With these things I'll never say_

* * *

**Author's Note **- sorry for run-on sentences, they're very fun to write! xD Did the image of Jay topless make you drool too?


End file.
